Students will need to successfully complete the taught modules delivered in the autumn and the spring semester as distance learning courses before attending the annual summer school in May/June of each year where they will present their proposed topic and plans for their dissertation. The taught modules can be taken over one or two years. The MSc should be completed within a period of two years.
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FIRST SEMESTER
Localisation
Project Management - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Outline the best practices in project management.
- Use the systems approach to localisation management.
- Balance traditional problem solving with systemic thinking.
- Understand project management through handling localisation-related work
as project work.
- Apply the tools and techniques of localisation project management to
maximise the successful delivery of localisation projects.
- Understand the strategic role of the subject matter in organisational
competitiveness and success.
Advanced
Language Engineering - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Elucidate the main components in a language engineering system.
- Understand the complex relationship between algorithms, statistics and
linguistic corpora.
- Appraise the main approaches to key tasks such as sentence alignment or
named entity recognition.
- Distinguish between algorithmic, statistical and machine-learning
approaches to problems.
- Characterise the potential of language engineering to solve particular
problems.
- Outline the different approaches to MT.
- Critically appraise the contribution which MT can make, as compared to
the use of translators.
- Appreciate the complexity of solving linguistic problems using
computational methods.
- Accept that engineering solutions are only a partial reflection of
fundamental conceptual issues.
- Adopt a realistic attitude to the application of MT.
Principal Issues
in Localisation - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Describe the key aspects of a localisation process.
- Outline the types of software tools which are commonly used.
- Portray the various roles played by different organisations.
- Identify technical problems in localisation.
- Propose possible solutions to these problems.
- Examine approaches to localisation engineering and testing.
- Differentiate between variants of localisation engineering and
testing.
- Demonstrate an awareness of business, strategic, cultural and political
aspects of the subject.
- Acknowledge the challenge of adapting material in a manner, which is
acceptable to many nationalities and cultures.
- Acknowledge the challenge of producing localised material in mainstream
enterprise and consumer environments as well as in collaborative
frameworks.
Directed Study:
Localisation Standards & Best Practice - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Examine the developments in internationalisation and localisation
standards and best practice since 1985.
- Review and evaluate the literature of an assigned theme.
- Generate and deliver a presentation.
- Create a structured report based on a literature and web based review of
the assigned theme.
- Demonstrate a critical appreciation based on the evaluation of a selected
localisation and internationalisation standards and best practice
approach.
SECOND SEMESTER
Localisation
Process Automation - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Summarise strategies and tools to analyse and describe process
architecture and organisational models.
- Demonstrate knowledge of workflow and process languages.
- Describe and comment on a standard localisation process and its different
stages.
- Design and implement/modify an automated localisation process using
industry-standard methods, tools and technologies.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the role and function of global content
management systems and translation web services.
- Describe ways to monitor and measure performance.
- Summarise the cascading supply chain in localisation and its impact on
the localisation of proprietary and open source digital content.
- Summarise in writing the role and function of internationalisation and
localisation standards, standard organisations, the standards development
and maintenance process, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
- Display an understanding of the requirement for process automation in
localisation and its underlying rationale.
- Challenge the trend to commoditize localisation services.
Translation
Technology - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Outline the different approaches to MT.
- Demonstrate a command of the key statistical principles behind the recent
algorithms.
- Assess the most appropriate method to use in a practical context.
- Critically appraise the contribution which MT can make, as compared to
the use of translators.
- Understand digital content management
- Demonstrate an understanding of the principal issues in multilingual
digital content management.
- Appreciate the complexity of solving linguistic problems using
computational methods.
- Adopt a realistic attitude to the application of MT.
Best Practice
Internationalisation - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Examine and assess approaches, proposed in literature, to undertaking
software internationalisation.
- Given source code for an application, identify the aspects relating to
language, culture, local practices and local conventions that need to be
addressed in order to internationalise this application.
- Identify how software development environments support addressing
language, culture, local practices and local conventions issues.
- Given source code for an application, internationalise it using the
functionality provided by a development environment.
- Differentiate between the variants of software internationalisation.
- Appreciate how an Application Program Interface (API) addresses language,
culture, local practices and local conventions issues.
Directed Study:
Applied Research Methods - [9 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Review, compare and critically evaluate research material from academic and applied research literature.
- Define, specify and contextualize a legitimate research question.
- Select and use the appropriate research paradigm and methods for a given research scenario.
- Justify the choice, design and implementation of research paradigm and methods.
- Appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of a range of research methods.
- Reflect critically on the role of the researcher.
- Embrace the attitudes and values held by the scientific community as necessary to further research and discovery.
- Conform to and promote a research ethos that is based on the highest possible academic standards.
THIRD SEMESTER
Dissertation -
[30 Credits]
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Logically structure state-of-the-art knowledge on a particular research aspect of software localisation.
- Carry out valid new research in the area of software localisation.
- Analyse the results generated by their research work in this area.
- Generate a thesis on a particular aspect of software localisation.
- Analyse and critically evaluate new literature in the area of software localisation.
- Defend through written medium, the research decisions taken during their research project.
